Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-08-09

New Development Projects in the Health Sector

- Due to the long term investments carried out in the health sector by the Government of Sri Lanka, health service has achieved improvements in the health outcomes and approximately 100% of preventive health care, 90% - 95% of in-patient care and 40% - 50% of out-patient care are being provided by the Public Sector. Health indexes are maintained on par with the developed countries and accordingly, the health services in Sri Lanka should be further upgraded with a view to making the population more healthy while also carrying out the health services free of charge uninterruptedly.

Accordingly, the Government has planned to improve the facilitates of the peripheral hospitals in order to minimize the overcrowding of major hospitals while also ensuring the optimal distribution of physical and human resources and for the construction of ward complexes for paediatrics, oncology, surgical, maternal, neonatal and oral health, operating theaters, drug stores and clinics in remote areas enabling easy access for the public to have specialist healthcare. Therefore, the proposal made by Hon. (Dr.) Rajitha Senaratne, the Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine to seek funds to initiate and implement several diverse projects which cost around Rs.28,000 million in the year 2018, was approved by the Cabinet.